Mr.Maule rose almost impetuously from his chair, and stood with his back to the fire, contemplating the proposition that had been made to him.
It was actually true that he had been offended by the very faint idea of death which had been suggested to him by his son.

Though he was a man bearing no palpable signs of decay, in excellent health, with good digestion,--who might live to be ninety,--he did not like to be warned that his heir would come after him.

The claim which had been put forward to Maule Abbey by his son had rested on the fact that when he should die the place must belong to his son;--and the fact was unpleasant to him.

Lady Chiltern had spoken of him behind his back as being mortal, and in doing so had been guilty of an impertinence.

Maule Abbey, no doubt, was a ruined old house, in which he never thought of living,--which was not let to a tenant by the creditors of his estate, only because its condition was unfit for tenancy.